Manual fire devices were a vital means of combat in periods like the 16th/17th centuries. Their use was massive and a resource much greater than cannons, i guess for both economic and technologic reasons. Episodes of combats involving such devices narrated by period chroniclers are abundant. Fire pots, panelas de polvora in portuguese (meaning gunpowder pans) were thrown or dropped onto the enemy, either in naval combats as also on land, like sieges and other, with extreme efficiency. Apparently the Portuguese (also) used the skill of German specialists they had in their ranks in the making of these devices.
To give an idea of how these things were a rather significant part of the armament, here is an inventory of the Mombaça fortification, mentioned by chronicler Antonio Bocarro (1594-1642):
16 cannons (5 iron and 11 bronze)
32 muskets
113 haquebuts
1000 cannon balls (713 iron and the balance of stone)
40 small boxes of lead bullets for the shoulder arms.
238 kegs of gunpowder
578 panelas de polvora (fire pots)
138 grenades
36 fire lances
9 pikes
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